October 20-22nd

Daniella Sawaya

Daniella’s love of food stems from a childhood spent helping her father and grandmother cook Lebanese and Nicaraguan dishes, while learning to preserve family recipes. At an early age, these experiences instilled in her a passion for cooking, a willingness to eat anything and a firm belief in the power of food to bring people together and to offer a way of communicating beyond language.

She received a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from UC Berkeley, where she focused on how urban design can serve as a tool for social impact. While Daniella may no longer have use for the AutoCad commands that plagued her college experience, the discovery of the Berkeley farmers’ market and Berkeley Bowl had a lasting impact and sparked an obsession with California citrus that continues to this day.

Daniella has focused her career on supporting entrepreneurs and mission driven, food-focused organizations. She spent five years at San Francisco’s internationally recognized incubator kitchen, La Cocina, where she learned to thrive in dynamic and resourceful workplaces. As Program Manager at La Cocina, she developed and managed food business development curriculum, and advocated for a more inclusive economy for women, immigrants and people from communities of color. Daniella took a break from the world of social entrepreneurship and spent a year working for San Francisco Unified School District’s initiative, the Future Dining Experience, where she led efforts to rebrand and redesign the student dining experience.